Internet: www.bls.gov/ro5/
GENERAL INFORMATION: (312) 353-1880 FOR RELEASE: 
MEDIA CONTACT: Paul LaPorte  Thursday, January 22, 2009
(312) 353-1138  

Highlights of Rockford, IL
National Compensation Survey, April 2008

 

Workers in the Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area earned an average of $19.26 per hour in April 2008, according to new survey results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that wage data were reported for workers in a wide range of occupational groups, including average hourly earnings of $20.36 for installation, maintenance and repair, and $14.27 for transportation and material moving occupations.  Another occupational group, healthcare support, had a mean hourly wage rate of $12.34.  The NCS data available for the Rockford area include earnings for 18 major occupational groups with additional detail for selected occupations within those groups.  (See table 1.)


Industrial machinery mechanics, part of the installation, maintenance, and repair occupational group, were paid $25.44 per hour.  Within the transportation and material moving occupational group, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers earned $15.76 per hour.  Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants, an occupation within the healthcare support occupational group, averaged $10.65 per hour.


Broad coverage of selected occupational characteristics is available from NCS for the local area.  Full-time workers averaged $20.38 per hour while their part-time counterparts earned $12.33.  Union workers earned $24.05 and non-union workers, $18.26.  Workers in establishments with 1-99 workers averaged $17.70 per hour, those in establishments with 100-499 workers earned $17.61, and those in establishments with 500 or more employees earned $24.73.


The occupational wage data available from NCS may be used by businesses for establishing pay plans, making decisions concerning plant relocation, and in collective bargaining negotiations.  Individuals may use such data to help choose potential careers.  NCS results also include the work level and respective earnings for occupations determined by a point factor leveling process.  The four occupational leveling factors are: knowledge, job controls and complexity, contacts, and physical environment.  Details on the NCS are available at www.bls.gov/ncs/.


The NCS data provided here covered 233 establishments with one or more workers in private industry and State and local governments.  Agricultural establishments, private households, the self-employed, and the Federal Government were excluded from the survey.  This sample of establishments represented 144,600 workers in the Rockford Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which is comprised of Boone and Winnebago Counties in Illinois.


Survey Availability


Complete survey results are contained in Rockford, IL National Compensation Survey April 2008.  The bulletin is available on the Internet in both text and PDF formats at www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm.


For additional information, please contact the Bureau of Labor Statistics Midwest Information Office in Chicago at (312) 353-1880 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. 



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Bulletin tables  - PDF format
                    - Text format

Table 1. Civilian workers: Mean hourly earnings (1) for full-time and part-time workers (2), Rockford, IL, April 2008
Occupation (3) Total Full-time workers Part-time workers
Mean Relative error (4) (percent) Mean Relative error (4) (percent) Mean Relative error (4) (percent)

All workers

$19.26 2.9 $20.38 3.1 $12.33 13.1

Management occupations

35.37 6.8 35.28 7.0

Business and financial operations occupations

23.02 3.0 23.02 3.0

Architecture and engineering occupations

32.91 4.8 32.91 4.8

Engineers

35.75 3.3 35.75 3.3

Mechanical engineers

34.82 4.0 34.82 4.0

Engineering technicians, except drafters

25.27 8.4 25.27 8.4

Community and social services occupations

15.42 13.4 15.48 13.5

Education, training, and library occupations

29.19 9.6 30.41 8.4 12.81 6.3

Primary, secondary, and special education school teachers

35.10 8.7 36.95 8.8

Elementary and middle school teachers

34.37 12.5 37.12 13.6

Elementary school teachers, except special education

34.39 14.0

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations

16.70 12.1

Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations

32.56 8.5 31.71 5.9 35.55 15.9

Registered nurses

33.88 14.8 31.35 13.3

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

20.03 1.5

Healthcare support occupations

12.34 7.0 12.53 8.7 11.47 2.7

Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides

10.81 3.5 10.81 4.4

Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants

10.65 2.9

Miscellaneous healthcare support occupations

14.78 7.3 15.22 5.2

Protective service occupations

16.20 14.0 17.08 14.4

Food preparation and serving related occupations

8.77 3.2 11.30 7.8 7.66 2.6

Food service, tipped

6.37 13.6 6.37 13.6

Waiters and waitresses

5.73 6.9 5.73 6.9

Fast food and counter workers

8.04 2.7 7.79 0.7

Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food

8.06 2.6 7.79 0.7

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations

10.55 5.9 11.49 6.2 7.68 1.8

Building cleaning workers

10.78 6.5 11.75 6.9

Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners

10.90 6.9

Personal care and service occupations

10.25 11.1 9.26 10.8

Sales and related occupations

14.55 8.1 17.09 9.0 8.73 5.2

First-line supervisors/managers, sales workers

21.30 19.8 21.94 19.9

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

15.17 16.8

Retail sales workers

10.21 8.0 11.65 9.8 8.70 5.4

Cashiers, all workers

8.59 1.3 8.10 4.6

Cashiers

8.59 1.3 8.10 4.6

Retail salespersons

10.75 12.9 12.78 11.3 9.03 11.7

Office and administrative support occupations

14.28 2.4 14.62 2.1 12.14 14.5

First-line supervisors/managers of office and administrative support workers

20.80 9.1 20.80 9.1

Financial clerks

13.08 7.2 13.31 7.3

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

13.71 9.2 14.02 10.1

Tellers

10.73 7.0

Customer service representatives

15.50 10.1 15.50 10.1

Receptionists and information clerks

12.64 4.0 12.48 2.5

Stock clerks and order fillers

10.25 9.9 8.60 0.0

Secretaries and administrative assistants

16.04 7.0 15.95 7.0

Office clerks, general

13.02 6.3 13.61 8.5 10.48 6.4

Construction and extraction occupations

24.48 6.2 25.12 5.5

Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations

20.36 9.1 20.47 9.3

Automotive technicians and repairers

14.25 21.1 14.25 21.1

Industrial machinery installation, repair, and maintenance workers

22.39 6.4 22.39 6.4

Industrial machinery mechanics

25.44 5.0 25.44 5.0

Production occupations

15.58 4.0 15.67 4.3 13.13 11.1

First-line supervisors/managers of production and operating workers

25.88 13.1 25.88 13.1

Electrical, electronics, and electromechanical assemblers

13.91 13.0 13.91 13.0

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

19.14 13.3 18.95 13.9

Computer control programmers and operators

17.17 10.5 17.17 10.5

Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic

17.17 10.5 17.17 10.5

Machine tool cutting setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

12.69 8.3 12.69 8.3

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

11.04 6.3 11.04 6.3

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

14.06 4.4 14.06 4.4

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

16.08 12.3 16.08 12.3

Miscellaneous production workers

12.98 12.3 13.24 13.1

Helpers--production workers

11.81 8.7 12.10 8.8

Transportation and material moving occupations

14.27 5.3 14.92 5.7 9.84 3.5

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers

14.88 2.5 15.56 4.0

Truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer

15.76 4.7 15.76 4.7

Truck drivers, light or delivery services

13.69 13.6

Industrial truck and tractor operators

13.83 4.9 13.83 4.9

Laborers and material movers, hand

12.35 7.9 12.96 8.7 8.84 5.9

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

14.00 15.0 16.03 17.8 8.55 7.1

Packers and packagers, hand

11.19 3.0 11.28 3.1

Footnotes:
(1) Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is computed by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of workers, weighted by hours.
(2) Employees are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time schedule based on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a full-time employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in another firm, where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time schedule.
(3) Workers are classified by occupation using the 2000 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.

(4) The relative standard error (RSE) is the standard error expressed as a percent of the estimate. It can be used to calculate a "confidence interval" around a sample estimate.


NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet publication criteria. Overall occupational groups may include data for categories not shown separately.

 

SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey.

 

Last Modified Date: January 22, 2009